Calaveras County plans to sue PG&E over Butte Fire

A water truck passes a warning sign that the California Caverns historic site in Calaveras County is closed due to smoke from the Butte Fire, on Sept. 12, 2015. Calaveras County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to sue Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over the deadly fire.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

Calaveras County officials plan to sue Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over the 2015 Butte Fire, which killed two people and has already sparked other lawsuits against the company.

The county’s board of supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to retain a coalition of law firms that specialize in wildfires for a suit against PG&E.

The Butte Fire, which burned 70,868 acres and destroyed 921 buildings, was started by a pine tree leaning into a PG&E power line, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection found. Officials estimate that the county lost “tens of millions of dollars” responding to the fire, as well as through damage to infrastructure and reduced tax revenue.

“We continue to extend our thoughts and prayers to the victims and the communities that suffered losses as a result of the Butte Fire, and we continue to work to resolve their claims,” said PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo. “We recognize the hardships that this fire caused, and we are committed to helping our friends and neighbors recover.”

The same legal coalition — the California Fire Lawyers, which includes the firms of Baron & Budd, the Singleton Law Firm, Thorsnes Bartolotta McGuire and Dixon Diab & Chambers — is already working with the counties of Napa and Sonoma to sue PG&E over last October’s Wine Country wildfires. The cause of those fires, however, remains under investigation.

David Baker covers energy, clean tech, electric vehicles and self-driving cars for the San Francisco Chronicle. He joined the paper in 2000 after spending five years in Southern California reporting for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily News of Los Angeles. He has reported from wind farms, geothermal fields, solar power plants, oil fields and an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He also visited Baghdad and Basra in 2003 to write about Iraq's reconstruction. He graduated from Amherst College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in San Francisco with his wife.